Welcome to Litsy!

Fun and interesting account of how special flavors have influenced American cuisine over the years, mostly with a focus on certain spices like curry, garlic, and sriracha. I am not really a foodie yet but I enjoyed it.

Starting a book about food and basic flavors.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a cook but I do enjoy reading about food usually through a travel memoir. Was surprised in 2017 to find Eight Flavors a 5🌟 read. Who knew the history of food could be so interesting?

Other 5🌟 for the year: One of Us is Lying, Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore & All Our Wrong Tomorrows.
#DecadeofBooks

*I'm thinking of buying all my 5🌟reads for my home library. Anyone else do that?

I read 3 books for my 2 books clubs this month! Find out my thoughts here: https://amysbookreviews.com/2019/11/19/3-november-book-club-picks-and-reviews/

When your snack is an accidentally perfect match for Chapter 8.

Also? The racism this book chronicles will make your jaw drop, which is inconvenient if you‘re drooling over the recipes, but not as inconvenient as RACISM ITSELF, so pay attention!

#TBRtemptation post 1! America may have a unique culinary landscape. And the young historical gastronomist has determined that is united by eight flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and sriracha. She combs through economic, religious, and economic records, cookbooks, manuscripts, & bills of lading, from the early colonial days through today. An interesting history indeed! #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎

After hearing this dynamic author I eagerly jumped into reading this and felt like it dragged for me. I wanted more of her experience and less technical stuff, I guess. Great concept and very interesting but slow reading.

Been in a serious reading slump lately, so I'm hoping some good nonfiction gets me out. That's my usual rut-busting strategy. What's yours?

Husband and I are on a NYC bound train for the weekend and I can't wait to eat my way through the city!

Not sure how to rate this. Somewhere between so-so & pick. Interesting & well-researched look at 8 foods that found their way onto the mainstream American table. Some of the tangents were, frankly, a little boring; plus I didn't find anything surprising. The #audiobook was read by the author—always a risky business—and I can't really recommend her performance. If you aren't well read in food history you'll like this much more than I did.

Yep this is a photo of the author from a few weeks ago when she gave a talk at Lippitt House in Providence, RI.

This one is fun! So interesting. If you're into food and history, it's a must read

Contrary to popular stereotype, Americans do like spicy food. It's in our biology. Much like chili powder & curry powder, Sriracha gets us a little bit high every time we eat it. The capsaicin in its jalapeño peppers triggers heat receptors in our mouths, & our brains release endorphins as a response. The experience is addictive so we repeat it again & again with spicier & spicier food.

This thoroughly enjoyable book is full of fascinating food history. The artwork, on the other hand, kind of detracts. (Above, inkwash drawing "Italian Immigration" in the chapter on garlic.) The eight flavor chapters are followed by a chapter speculating on the next big trend. Will it be matcha? Pumpkin spice? Smoke? Cardamom? I am curious too.

After the war, much of Kikkoman's raw material for making soy sauce - soy and wheat - were grown in America and exported to Japan for brewing. In 1972, as business expanded in the US, the company decided to open a factory close to its raw materials, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was the first Japanese manufacturing plant to open in the US.

A guest once recalled breakfast at the Crowninshield house; each of the children wanted something different to drink: tea, milk, water, hot chocolate and so on. Irritated by his sons' and daughters' individual requests, George asked a servant to bring a cup of each and a large bowl. He poured the drinks all together, stirred them up and said, "Now, children, help yourselves."

The first soy sauce manufactured in the Western world was produced in 1767 in Thunderbolt, Georgia, near Savannah, long before the first Chinese and Japanese immigrants arrived. A British immigrant named Samuel Bowen introduced soybeans - today a principal crop in America - for the purpose of making soy sauce.

Bakers in the late 18th & early 19th centuries used rose water in the same way we use vanilla today: a teaspoon in a cake, a dash in pumpkin pie, even a tablespoon with stewed fruits. Today we associate rose water only with imported or immigrant foods, with no memory that in 1800, using it in apple pie would have been as American as the apple pie itself.

I made Black Pepper Brown Sugar Cookies from a recipe in this book. Very tasty.

Black pepper is currently the number one selling spice in America, representing 10% of all retail spice sales, and Americans use more than 158 million pounds of it per year.

Novelist Stephen Crane visited San Antonio in 1889 and described his dining experience as follows: "Mexican vendors with open-air stands sell food that tastes exactly like pounded fire-brick from Hades - chile con carne, tamales, enchiladas, chili verde, frijoles."

By 1830 the Mexican government passed the Law of April 6. Americans had been flooding to Tejas, and the law tried to stem the tide by banning further emigration from the States. Yes - at one time a law was passed to stop Americans from immigrating to Mexico.

I don't trust a chocolate cake recipe that calls for 3 1/2 cups of cocoa. I can eat chocolate like a champ, but come on! This recipe is for one 9-inch round pan. Author credits cake historian Jessica Reed, so I looked her up on line, where I found her recipe for Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Black Pepper Ganache. Reed calls for only 1/2 cup of cocoa. That sounds right.

Vanilla would become the world's favourite ice cream flavour. But because the Spanish had monopoly on the sale of vanilla beans, the beans were rare and expensive. In the 18th century, Europeans were far more likely to chow down on more common flavours such as violet, orange, or rye bread ice cream than vanilla.

Did you know that it wasn't uncommon in the mid-18th century for boys as young as nine to be admitted into the US Navy? I love learning stuff in books.

"In this affectionate and insightful history of American cookery, Sarah Lohman tells a story filled with surprising characters, unexpected history - and the occasional irresistible recipe. EIGHT FLAVORS is a flavourful delight, start to finish." - Deborah Blum, author of THE POISONER'S HANDBOOK